THE STORY God Builds a Nation A sermon by Dr. J. Matthew Burton, Jr. Clemmons United Methodist Church July 5, 2015 GO WHERE?

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1 THE STORY God Builds a Nation A sermon by Dr. J. Matthew Burton, Jr. Clemmons United Methodist Church July 5, 2015 Genesis 12:1-3 (NRSV) 1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." GO WHERE? Fred Craddock who was a professor of preaching and New Testament studies at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia asked this question: Why is it God never calls anyone into the ministry loud enough for their whole family to hear? With that in mind imagine that I m going to have the following conversation with Beverly this afternoon: Beverly, I just had a little talk with God (Not the Bishop or the District Superintendent) and God wants us to pick up all of our possessions, leave the United Methodist Church, Clemmons, and Clemmons United Methodist Church. God also wants you to abandon the job you just got with the YMCA teaching in the Silver Snickers program. We are supposed to leave the comfortableness of our home and homeland and start a new ministry in the Middle East. God didn t tell me which country. He just wants us to go and God will let us know where we are supposed to settle down at some point in the future.

2 God also promised that He will bless us with six more children in our old age and that we will eventually have at least 12 acres of desert property at our disposal. Also and this is the exciting part God says he will give us a special blessing which must go unnamed at this time. Now try to imagine, if you can, Beverly s response (I would ask that you try to keep it clean). What if Beverly responded to God s bizarre request this way: Well, Matthew that sounds like a terrific idea. I will start packing right away so we can leave first thing in the morning. It s very doubtful that s the response I would get. Truthfully, if God came to me and said He wanted me to abandon everything my years of service in the United Methodist Church, my life as I currently know it, the church I serve, my extended family, and my country I wouldn t have to have a conversation with Beverly because my response to God would be, you want me to do what and go where? GOING IN FAITH Abraham or Abram, as he is called at the beginning of our story, wouldn t think my illustration all that bizarre. After traveling with his father Terah from the land of Ur (modern day Iraq), Terah and his family settle in Harran where Abram and his wife Sarah live for most of their life. Suddenly, God appears out of nowhere and commands Abram (as he is called at this point in the story) to leave his country, kindred and father s house to go to a land that I will show you. 1 1 Genesis 1:1.

3 God was asking Abram to leave everything behind that gave him identity and a reason for living. In the tight-knit family/clan-oriented culture of the day, leaving family and land meant leaving behind one s source for law, morality, safety, security and identity. For Abram to leave Harran was to put his future survival both psychological and personal at risk. Abram abandoned everything to follow God s command. I cannot help but think of what Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings says to Frodo just before leaving to go on his adventure: It s a dangerous business Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off too. Like Frodo, Abram left everything not knowing where he might be swept off too. Robert Raines speaks for Abram and all of us in his book, living the Questions. He writes: People are insecure these days, and frightened of uncertainty. So there is severe pressure on all of us to drain the mystery, identify insiders and outsiders, and arrive at early closure of our questions. Some people are always trying to swing the gates of the theological OK Corral back in place. Too bad. The nostalgia is understandable, but theological rectitude isn t where it s at. People worrying about a job, holding onto their marriage by the fingernails, or struggling to make it alone, or searching in broken images for the reality of God in their lives aren t into protecting orthodoxy. They re into trying to make it on faith, and in faith. They want to discover what it means to go out not knowing.

4 And the poets are more help than theologians. Theodore Roethke wrote, I learn by going where I have to go.... Going out not knowing. Four words that define faith. 2 Abram went out not knowing. Abraham would eventually become his name. Abraham, which means Father of many, left everything and eventually became the father of a nation. That in itself is an amazing thing when you consider that Abraham and Sarah were card holding members of the Middle-Eastern Association for Retired Persons. And, yet, even our Lord and Savior would eventually trace His roots to this man of faith (See Matthew 1). So what does it mean to hear God s call and to go in faith? TO GO IN FAITH MEANS GIVING UP SOME THINGS As we ve already heard, going in faith means giving up or leaving some things behind. When Abraham makes the decision to follow God, he faces some difficult decisions and inward struggles. God tells Abraham he must give up his worship of idols and other gods. Abraham is to follow the one God. Abraham leaves his parents and support system. He will never see most of his friends again. This is a serious decision that not only involves relationships but economic considerations. In choosing to follow God s command, Abraham walks away from everything that has provided for his family. He leaves his work trusting that God would provide. Abraham gives up his security and 75 years of personal history and places himself under God s guidance. Instead of defining himself by his family, place, and work, Abraham is to identify himself through the covenant with Yahweh, the one God. For God will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. 3 This covenant relationship with God extends beyond Abraham himself. 2 Robert Raines, Living the Questions (Tarentum, PA: Word Publishers, 1976). 3 Genesis 12:3

5 All his future offspring are included. This is how Abraham is to become a Great nation. 4 The point being that it is hard to follow God s call if we insist on holding on to or clinging to old patterns and ways of life. Larry Crab in his book Shattered Dreams, says that our churches are full of people who are too comfortable to seek God s face. He writes, Satan s masterpiece is not the prostitute or the bum. It is the selfsufficient person who has made life comfortable, who is adjusting well to the world and likes living here, who longs only to be a little better and a little better off than he already is. 5 This certainly clashes with our Christian cultural understanding that security and comfort are blessings from God. Maybe security and comfort are masking our spiritual deadness. Maybe God s calling in our lives is God s desire to take us out of our comfort zone so that we might do something significant and wonderful for the Kingdom of God. What is it that you and I need to give up so we can follow God in faith? What is God challenging you to walk away from so that you might go on a journey with Him? TO GO IN FAITH MEANS ALLOWING GOD INTO YOUR LIFE AND HEART Abraham was a worshipper of idols and many gods before God stepped in. Abraham could not have walked away from his home and made such an incredible faith journey if he had not allowed God into his life and heart. Marjorie Camper shares a parable of how God works when we allow Him into our lives as Abraham did. 4 Genesis 12:2. 5 Larry Crab, Shattered Dreams (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2001), 119.

6 Camper was working in the garden with her six-years-old son. All of a sudden the little boy grabbed a daffodil bud and sat down on the ground with it. He studied the flower and then tried to force it open. Frustrated he cried out, Mom, why is it that when I try to open the flower, it just falls to pieces? How does God open a flower? Before Camper could respond, the little boy suddenly made his own ah! Ah! Discovery, Oh, I know! He exclaimed, God always works from the inside. When we allow God into our lives and hearts, as Abraham did, God will work on us from the inside out changing and transforming our lives in such a way as to allow God to direct, challenge, and guide us to new places. As Mark Twain once said, Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 6 TO GO IN FAITH MEANS BELIEVING IN A FUTURE WE CANNOT SEE Responding to God s call, to explore, dream, and discover means believing in a future you cannot always see. As we have already learned, following in faith, as far as Abraham is concerned, means giving up those things that provide safety and security. It means abandoning the familiar. It means remembering history but allowing history to remain in the past. For Abraham and all of us, following in faith means embracing a future we cannot see. It means trusting in God s promise and blessing. It is said that the African Impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet when it jumps. Yet, these 6 Source Unknown.

7 wonderful creatures can be kept in an enclosure with a wall as low as 3 feet. The Impala will not jump unless it can see where its feet will fall. What does this say to each of us about our faith? Faith is trusting in a future your cannot see. Faith means going forward sometimes not knowing where you will end up. Faith means following God s call not always knowing where it might lead. God followers need to move beyond the entrapment of fear. We need to stop fearing the changes that are happening all around us. We need to unstick ourselves from some of our entrenched ways so that we might reach new generations in the name of Christ. TO GO IN FAITH MEANS WE ARE NOT CRIPPLED BY OUR MISTAKES If we are going to follow God in faith, we need to learn that our mistakes and failures need not bring us down. Abraham certainly made his share of mistakes as he attempted to follow God s call. Out of fear for his life, Abraham lied to the Pharaoh about the identity of his wife. He took too many family members along with him on his journey. Some didn t understand the extent of God s call and ended up causing Abraham a great deal of heartache. Abraham had to pause his journey in order to rescue Lot and his family from captivity. Becoming impatient with God concerning his and Sarah s barrenness, Sarah sends Abraham to her slave Hagar so that she might become a surrogate mother. Hagar bears Abraham a son, Ishmael, but this causes untold problems once Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. The story reminds me that our mistakes, failures, excesses, and misjudgments don t have to bring us down. As someone has said, We are made by God for many births! New life is not only desirable; it is possible! It is God who gives us life. It is also with God s help that we discover the possibility of new life in the midst mistakes and failures. Thanks be to God for that!

8 TO GO IN FAITH MEANS RESPONSE Ultimately, in spite of our mistakes and everything else that goes along with following God in faith, it all boils down to response. Abraham responded when God called. Abraham didn t know what the future held but he willing left his former life behind and allowed God to direct his life and heart. Abraham s faithfulness was the beginning of a nation. It started the linage of faithfulness that would ultimately bring us Jesus Christ. It is the call of Abraham and Christ that speaks into our lives to this day. It is a call that says to some of you: Do you see my hungry and homeless? Go feed and give shelter. Many of you do that now through the Clemmons food pantry or by interviewing individuals who need help through our compassion fund. Some of you hear the call to go overseas to build or rebuild churches and parsonages. 75 youth and adults have heard the call to help those in need in our North Carolina communities through Carolina Cross Connection. We will send them off with our blessing in a couple of weeks. Others have heard God s call through the gift of music and sing in our choir. Others sing or play an instrument in the praise team. Some direct our children s choirs and handbell groups. Many of you are mentors to our confirmands or tach Sunday school. There are those who chair committees, facilitate teams, or lead one of our many Covenant groups. So many of you faithfully and quietly give of yourself through the work of the Altar guild, United Methodist Women, and United Methodist men.

9 Every week there are teams of you who provide hospitality as greeters. You fix coffee and provide refreshments in our Commons area. There are teams that help with AV and sound in our three worship services every Sunday. So many people faithful help the Body of faith at Clemmons through their work on the Trustees, Finance Committee, Staff Parish Committee, and Administrative Council. So many of you carry the DNA of Abraham s call into your places of work and play. You see your work as sacred and important. You make a difference in people s lives by what you do. This is important because following God in faith is not just about what you do at Clemmons UMC but also about who you are and what you do every day. My point is that many of you have heard God s call and have responded in significant ways. As we journey through the Bible for 31 weeks, we need to remember that it doesn t do any good to read the Bible if we don t do something about it. At some point in our lives, God invites us to answer God s call. It s up to us as individuals and as a congregation to answer the call by saying, Here I am Lord, I have heard your call. I will go and hold your people in my heart. Think about it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.